Archive for the 'Oklahoma City Thunder' Tag Under 'Lakers' Category

The threat of Oklahoma City's high-speed attack could be averted in the first round of the playoffs if the Lakers can beat the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night at Staples Center.

With a victory, the Lakers would finish seventh in the Western Conference and draw the second-seeded San Antonio Spurs instead of the No. 1 Thunder. The Lakers lost the season series to Oklahoma City, 3-1, and also to San Antonio, 2-1.

However, there is still the chance the Lakers will not make the playoffs or finish eighth.

For the Lakers to miss the playoffs, the Utah Jazz would have to win their 5 p.m. Pacific time game at Memphis and the Lakers would have to lose to Houston at 7:30 p.m. The Lakers will thus know if it is truly a must-win situation for them to make the playoffs. Memphis will be motivated to win in its quest for home-court advantage in the first round.

For the Lakers to finish eighth, the Jazz would have to lose and the Lakers would have to lose also. Houston will be motivated to beat the Lakers if it wants to avoid facing Oklahoma City and draw San Antonio. The Rockets lost the season series to the Thunder, 2-1, and to San Antonio, 3-1.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- For all that happened Tuesday night, nothing really happened.

The Lakers never led.

They never showed the hunger or cohesiveness that the defending Western Conference champion Oklahoma City Thunder did.

And so the Lakers lost, 122-105, to fall back under the .500 mark in the latest example that they are not back to their preseason status as legitimate title contenders.

Mike D'Antoni's defense tied the NBA record for fewest turnovers forced, and Dwight Howard aggravated the torn labrum in his right shoulder and expressed frustration at not getting any field-goal attempts in the second half.

Kevin Durant can remember when the NBA world revolved around the Lakers' success, so he's not too eager to have it happen again.

Asked about what the Lakers' first victory in three tries against Durant's Oklahoma City team might mean for the Lakers as they try to turn around their season, Durant said Sunday: "Who knows, and who really cares about them. It's all about us. We're focusing on us."

Durant was aware while he was scoring 35 points in a losing effort of how much the Lakers wanted the victory, saying "you could tell the whole arena felt" the Lakers' desperation at Staples Center.

"It was a must-win for them, and they came out and performed well," Durant said.

Thunder coach Scott Brooks said about the Lakers: "They're going to be good the rest of the year if they can stay healthy."

When the Lakers' offense would get in a rut, Phil Jackson would move Kobe Bryant from the wing to the backcourt in the triangle offense and essentially force Bryant to shift his mentality from pure scorer to team playmaker.

Mike D'Antoni can do that, too. And he has.

D'Antoni muttered a week ago: "The ball sticks, and we don't take very good shots." But with Bryant taking over much of the ball-handling duties from D'Antoni's longtime and all-time great point guard Steve Nash, the Lakers have morphed the past two games into a cohesive, winning unit.

Bryant posted 14 assists -- one shy of his 17-year career high -- for the second consecutive game in the Lakers' best victory of the season Sunday: They downed Western Conference favorite Oklahoma City, 105-96.

Asked if he was enjoying all the passing, Bryant said: "I enjoy winning."

There are days in the long season when guys are working, dealing with the issues at hand, and no one gauges how far away an NBA championship might be.

Then there are days such as Friday.

The defending Western Conference champion Oklahoma City Thunder dropped one epic hammer on the Lakers, who crumpled in a 116-101 defeat and could only look up in pain from the canvas and their first six-game losing streak in six years.

Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said before this stretch of five games against teams ahead of the Lakers in the West standings that it'd dictate a feeling of either "This is getting a little scary" or "We're coming along." The Lakers lost 'em all to the Clippers, Nuggets, Rockets, Spurs and Thunder -- and now they have only their 20th losing streak of at least six games in franchise history.

D'Antoni said he told the players right after the game: "Our season starts Sunday. We need to make a run."

Lakers fans fretting their team's 9-11 start can take solace in these comments about the Lakers by Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks:

"We all know that the Lakers are one of the best teams. They don't have the record right now, but they will. They're going to get some guys healthy, and they're going to get some rhythm, but they have the best center in basketball and they have one of the best players ever. Steve Nash will come back, and Coach (Mike) D'Antoni will continue to get that team better."

Russell Westbrook frequently looked over at Kobe Bryant during his first-half rampage Friday night, and the unhappiest Westbrook was all night was when he didn't get a foul called on Bryant when he drove right at him and failed to score over the Lakers' veteran.

It has to be a concern for the Lakers if Westbrook and Kevin Durant, Bryant's U.S. Olympic teammates who endured a playoff loss to the Lakers in 2010 as Bryant was on his way to another title, are driven to maintain superiority over him.

“Maybe one day they'll be able to sit at my lunch table,” Bryant said last February after a loss in Oklahoma City. “Right now, we're at two different lunch tables.”

It's true enough that Bryant is still ahead of Durant and Westbrook, 5-0, in NBA championship rings – though that's part of the monstrous challenge for the Lakers this season: overcoming Oklahoma City's redoubled motivation of coming close to the top but losing to Miami in the 2012 NBA Finals.

"He plays hard every minute he is on the floor," Durant said. "He makes you want to step up and play."

The Lakers have reached the quarter pole in their 2012-13 season with a couple flat tires, a limping new coach and now a largely uncompetitive 114-108 loss Friday night to their supposed fellow contenders, the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Without injured Steve Nash and Pau Gasol, the Lakers didn't threaten until an Oklahoma City letdown in the final minutes. The Thunder, which won the Western Conference last season, improved to 16-4 compared to the Lakers' 9-11.

After much preseason hype, the Lakers could win all 62 remaining games on their schedule and not match the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls' 72-10 record.

Dwight Howard preached patience after the loss, citing the 82-game season and saying: "This is not anybody's timetable but ours."

The Thunder pulled away after the Lakers stayed in it via early rebounding dominance. Oklahoma City point guard Russell Westbrook had a private party in the first half with 27 points, five assists and no turnovers. Even more so than Kevin Durant, Westbrook can be unstoppable – if his outside shot is dropping, as it was against the Lakers.

The Lakers are favored to win the Western Conference but lose to the Miami Heat in the 2013 NBA Finals, according to the oddsmakers at Bovada.

For the 82-game regular season, the Lakers are projected to win about 59 1/2 games -- the same number as the Oklahoma City Thunder. (Defending NBA champion Miami is projected to win 61.) The Lakers won 57 regular-season games in 2010-11, 2009-10 and 2007-08. Their best recent regular season under Phil Jackson was 2008-09, when they went 65-17.

During the Lakers' 2000-02 run to three consecutive championships under Jackson, they won 67, 56 and 58 games in the regular season. (Last season, the Lakers went 41-25 in the lockout-shortened schedule.)

“Looking at our NBA championship odds, one thing really stands out, and that is that only three teams are under 10/1 to win it all and it is pretty much a three-horse race with the Heat favored to repeat at 11/5, the Lakers at 5/2, and the Thunder at 9/2," Bovada sportsbook manager Kevin Bradley said. "Even at these short odds, these three teams have taken the most money, along with the Boston Celtics, who we opened at 25/1 (and) who I have now dropped down to 18/1."

The Clippers are listed as the fourth most-likely team to win the West, behind the Lakers, Thunder and Spurs, and seventh most-likely for the NBA title (at 25/1). The Clippers are projected to win 49 1/2 regular-season games.

Mario Chalmers is every bit the player Lakers fans wished Smush Parker and Sasha Vujacic would be, and Chalmers was very much a contributor, not a passenger, in Miami's title drive.

The Lakers have a player who might fill that role in Andrew Goudelock, given the trust of Coach Mike Brown and his patience to live through the growing pains, not evident in the Lakers season just past. It's important to note the Heat somehow won while incorporating a rookie guard, Norris Cole, in its rotation from the outset.

Pau Gasol, with his outside game, should be just as much a threat from the elbow or the corner as Chris Bosh was against the Oklahoma City Thunder, where the Heat forward also made timely cuts for easy baskets. It's all a matter of floor spacing, long a Pat Riley staple that Erik Spoelstra learned, and communicated, so well.

Expanding on the latter point, no matter what offense the Lakers choose to run in 2012-13, I can't see any reason why Kobe Bryant, who can still command double teams at age 32, can't facilitate somewhat to the degree LeBron James did in Game 5. Kobe has the basketball IQ and passing ability; it's a matter of the proper spacing, and movement, by the still-talented cast around him.